Hyperthermia is a method of treating cancer, in which heat is applied to tissue of the cancer patient, in order to kill cancer cells within the tissue. Hyperthermia is typically used to treat cancer patients in combination with other therapies, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The Warburg effect describes the observation that most cancer cells predominantly produce energy by glycolysis followed by lactic acid fermentation, rather than by oxidation of pyruvate like most healthy cells. The Warburg effect results in cancer cells consuming more than 20 times the quantity of glucose to produce energy than do healthy cells, ceteris paribus.
When a solid material is heated until its melting point, the material undergoes a phase-change to its liquid state. During the phase-change, the material accumulates a certain amount of heat, which is called the latent heat of fusion, or the enthalpy change of fusion. The temperature of the material stays relatively constant when the phase change occurs.